Ethical consumerism : Examining Fair Trade
Posted by: angielost on: March 5, 2012
Wow what a busy time this Christmas and new years period has been. Life got so on top of me, with holidays and my wedding that i took a short hiatus from this blog. However I am back now and looking forward to sharing more with you all about Ethical Consumerism and how you can make a difference with the way you shop.
In our first of the series on examining ethical consumerism we are going to look at Fair Trade, what it is and the effect it has.
1. What is Fair Trade?
Fair trade is all about ensuring that workers and producers are paid fair wages (and is it free from slave and or child labor.). It effectivly asks for higher prices to be paid to producers in order to end the disparity between producer and seller. It is in effect a social movement attempting to end the buy low sell high mindset that big modern companies follow.
2. The Need For Fair Trade
Today’s global trade market is based on a capitalistic system in which big business attempt to gain goods and the lowest possible price in order to resell them with the highest profit margin. As a result of this methodology within the global market place the big businesses and the rich are getting richer whilst the poor, the artisans and workers who produce these products are forced to remain in poverty being paid meagre wages for there work.
In addition to the benefits of a fair wage. The Fair Trade movement also has other positive effects.
- Fair Trade decreases a dependence on aid and allows communities to provide for themselves in a sustainable manner: This is because a fair income means a chance at climbing out of poverty for an entire community.
- Fair trade is anti child labor and slavery this means that when you buy fair trade you are ensuring a child labor and slave free working environment.
The downside to fair trade
Fair trade certification is granted by a third party organisation that goes through a long and intensive process in order to ascertain that a product meets all the criteria, that it pays workers a fair wage and that it is free of slavery and child labor etc. The problem with this is that the certification process is EXPENSIVE. And many farmers and growers who are producing fair trade can not afford to go through the certification process.
Whilst there are many benefits and positives of the fair trade movement you have to remember that there are many other co-operatives and farmers and artisans out there who also can not afford to go through the certification. So Fair Trade is definitely a step in the right direction but education and research into all your purchases is equally important as there are many great initiatives out there that follow the fair trade principles without being Fair trade.
Follow us:
Follow us this week as we share with you some of our favorite fair trade business’s and places to buy.
Join us also next week for the next in our series on ethical consumerism.
You can also follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Global-Market-For-Change/173586952738641
Fair trade? Ethical? Socially Responsible? Hows a consumer to know?
Posted by: angielost on: December 24, 2011
This blog post has been prompted by a friend who recently commented on how overwhelmed she was at the thought of the worlds current global market place and how we can know that things are ethically produced.
She questioned the Fair Trade concept. A product may be fair trade but what about the machinery they use was that produced fair trade also?
Then she questioned etsy shops. Where do the supplies for these products come from? And in buying local/handmade from etsy are you actually supporting an artisan in an ethical manner or are you further perpetuating a cycle of sweatshop abuse?
And then she hit on a very relevant point. Even if that is the case how can you ensure the things you buy from now on are ethical. for example how do we track that parts of a cellphone or a computer to ensure there was no exploitation in the making of the product. What about clothes how do we know the cotton was produced ethically, what about the machines used to harvest the cotton?
It really is an overwhelming dilemma. But i want to shed a little thought and light on the issue.
First i think it must be noted that it is at this current point in time impossible to continue living as we in the west are used to and still manage to buy everything ethically. I say this because we are highly technology dependent societies and sadly in order to produce the chips in our cellphones, computers and DVD players, gaming machines, and even some of our tv’s and video cameras we require a thing called Coltan, much of which is legitimately mined in places such as Australia, but some of which is also produced in the Congo and is funding a brutal war that exists there. This fact alone, and the reality that companies are at this point in time unable to distinguish where the coltan comes from, means that if we continue to buy and access these technologies we are supporting a bloody conflict and thus cannot live a completely ethical consumerist lifestyle.
Ouch thats a harsh reality.
But all is not a loss. Whilst it is a reality that not everything can be ethically purchased we can take steps towards ensuring that when we buy we buy as ethically as possible. So over the next couple of weeks i am going to run a series called Ethical Consumerism.
We will examine the types of ethical consumerism: Fair Trade Products, Economical sustainable community products, the Buy Local movement, the Organic and Cruelty free movements, and other methods of ethical consumerism. As well as practical tips as to how you can ensure that as a consumer you are making the biggest positive impact you can with the money that you spend.
I Am The Change
Posted by: angielost on: December 20, 2011
This past week I have found myself thinking about who is responsible for addressing poverty. Large amounts of time has been spent contemplating that. And the resounding answer just keeps coming back the same. I am.
I am responsible for feeding the hungry
I am responsible for providing clean drinking water
I am responsible for educating those with no education
I am responsible for providing healthcare to those who have none
I am responsible for providing an end to human trafficking
I am responsible for addressing the community and societal break downs that cause poverty.
I am the answer
Just like you are the answer.
The question is how?
Did you know if I brought one less coffee a week I could provide a mosquito nets to children to keep them from dying from malaria.
Did you know that if I spent $1.50 less on food each day I could daily provide a child with a life saving vaccination.
Did you know that if I spent $4 less per week on entertainment I could educate a child in Africa for that week.
Did you know that if I spent $1 less per day on myself I could feed a starving child in Africa for a week.
If I did just those 4 easy things in a month I could:
Provide 4 life saving mosquito nets
Provide 31 children with life saving vaccinations.
Educate a child for a month
Feed 7 starving children for a month.
But then what? That is a great method in the short-term but it doesn’t create a long-term sustainable change.
But what if I did it differently?
What if I committed to spend $7 less per week. $364 less per year and committed to investing that money into a project whose entire focus was on one impoverished community and creating a self-sustaining community change.
Did you know that if for one year I, and 25 other people committed to spend $7 less per week we could fund a startup of a new self-sustaining community project. A project that addresses health, hunger, education, sustainable business and family and societal breakdowns with proven solutions.
1 Year. 25 People, $7 per week = 1 new self-sustaining community project started.
In the 2nd year the amount of people needed to invest in that community quarters.
In the third year it halves
By year 5 that community is fully self-sustaining and has risen above the poverty line. By year 10 they reach a level where they are able to reach out to help another community.
We become the change. Not just in the short-term. But in the long-term. Sustainable change for generations at $7 a week?
I’m keen… Anyone else?
Focus: Hill Tribe Refugees
Posted by: angielost on: December 13, 2011
When i was 14 years old i embarked on a journey with some other crazy teenagers to spend six weeks at a orphange in northern Thailand. This Orphanage worked with orphans from the Akha hilltribe whose villages are on both sides of the Burmese (now Myanmar)/Thai border. This experience as a young girl who had only just turned 14 taught me quite a few things about the hill tribes in Thailand and Myanmar.
1. The minority hill tribes are oppressed by the armies in Myanmar who do not hesitate to go into villages (on both sides of the border), kill men and take women and children and sell them into prostitution and slavery.
2. Tribes people who do not experience this extreme level of violence often find their land (and livelihood) forcefully taken away from them by the armies, leaving them without home or a way to feed themselves or there families.
3. Hill tribes are often forced to flea into Thailand in order to escape sever persecution. But when they reach Thailand they are left without a status or citizenship which means they are unable to receive an education or find work. Leaving them open to further exploitation in the very place they came to in order to escape persecution and risk of exploitation.
4. There are a few hill tribers who are lucky enough to gain refugee status and are relocated to locations within the western world. But sadly the difficulties do not end there. Without education and without the ability to speak english refugees often struggle to adapt to their new location and to find gainful employment, often leaving them and their families continuing to struggle in poverty.
Honestly the picture painted for Hill Tribers in Northern Thailand is very bleak. And thoughts of these people and their plight have been with me since my six weeks in Thailand ten years ago! (was it really that long? How time has flown)
With this background in mind I’m sure you can imagine how excited i was when i ran across a orginsation that is working with HillTribe Refugees. It was definitely something i had to share.
Hill Country Hill Tribers Is a non-profit organisation in Austin, Texas who have an awesome initative that works with Hiltribe refugees who have been allowed to relocate to the USA. It provides these refugees with a oppertunity to retain their heritage crafts (back loom weaving, and sewing) and to work as Artisans to provide a supplementary income to allow their families to thrive in their new environments.
This is a great organisation. The Women and one man create traditional crafts which are sold with a small amount of the profits going back into supplies and the rest going directly to the artisans.
Additionally to this the artisans are provided with organized classes, such as English as a second language, business skills, selling and marketing training, sewing classes and basic life skills. All the things these refugees need to make a positive transition into a succesful new life in the United States.
Honestly i love this model which recognizes the refugees courage and strength to start afresh whilst also providing a viable means of income and a maintenance of their traditional roots. So many good things here!
Here are just a few of the great products they have available for purchase:
Go to their shop see more products. You’ll be surprised at how reasonable they are! http://www.etsy.com/shop/hilltribers
And just because I think its awesome to see how the joy that hope brings to people who have faced such hardship; here’s a video:
For more information on this organisation or to read more about the artisans involved visit their website: http://hilltribers.org/
Fashionable- Focus Ethiopia
Posted by: angielost on: December 11, 2011
Ethiopia: The facts:
80 Million People
1/2 of them live in extreme Poverty
In Addis Ababa over 150,000 women are involved in prostitution
Most of these woman are not involved in the sex trade by choice. They are involved because they have no other options. No other means of providing for themselves or there families.
When presented with a different opportunity most of these courageous woman will take the chance to leave the life of prostitution in order to live a life of freedom, redemption and new hope.
FashionAble is one of the options providing new hope to these woman.
FashionAble, is a registered non-profit organisation that allows these woman to learn a local Ethiopian craft of weaving gorgeous handmade scarves which are then sold in the west. Providing a sustainable business for these woman with all profits going back to these woman, and to providing opportunities for more woman like them to leave a life of prostitution.
It’s a simple business model: Scarves = Jobs. Profits= Restoration and rehabilitation. Which means your purchase = hope, restoration and opportunities for woman in Africa who previously never had a choice.
Now that’s a business model i can support.
And there scarves are beautiful. and they have them for kids and men as well.
You can purchase them here: http://livefashionable.com/products/
Go on you know you want to!
Amazima
Posted by: angielost on: December 7, 2011
Today i want to take you briefly to a community in Uganda: Masese: A slum community in Uganda where there is very little hope over ever being raised out of poverty.
Masese is a slum community just outside of Jinja, it is the home to over 2000 women, men and children, many of whom are Karamojong families who fled as refugees to the southern part of Uganda in order to escape the war and famine that was destroying the northern part. When they begun there lives near Jinja they had hopes and dreams that living a life near that prospering town of Jinja may afford them some hope of building a new life where they could provide for their families, but as time has gone by that hope has diminished and the people of Masese live in extreme poverty and hopelessness.
The situation in Masese is dire. There is extreme hunger, disease and infection and a daily struggle to survive. Struggling to provide even the basic food for their families many women have had no option but to resort to prostitution or brewing alcohol (another severe problem in Masese is alcohol addiction) in an effort to make something to survive whilst children resort to picking through trash in order to find anything to eat. Because of their extreme poverty children go hungry, and uneducated and many die from preventable diseases. But worst of all these children have no hope for their future.
Amazima Ministries, started by 19-year-old Katie Davis, has a vocational program in Masese that attempts to restore home to the Masese women and children. It runs a self-supporting vocational problem which empowers women in the community to provide for themselves and their families.
These women create beautiful and unique Handmade necklaces which are then sold to people in the western world. This program has done such great things for the women of Masese. Because of their new jobs they no longer have to prostitute themselves, brew alcohol, or have their children pick through trash to survive. Instead they are able to provide for their families in a healthy, empowering and sustainable manner. They are also taught entrepreneurship and money management skills. But most importantly because of their new jobs their hope and dignity have been restored and for the first time these Masese women have a chance to lift themselves out of poverty.
Watch this video and see first hand how one womans hope has been restored and her life changed as a result of the opportunities Amazima has afforded her.
Do you want to make a difference in Uganda? Then why not support the Masese women of Amazima Ministries. You can purchase necklaces and bracelets made by this women at Amazima’s store http://www.amazimastore.org/
All for under $20. They make great gifts and make a huge difference in the lives of women who previously had no hope. And their items are beautiful. I would definitely be happy if I received some of these for christmas this year.
Examples:
A couple of things i love about Amazima:
- They are all about changing communities and their entire ministry includes, feeding programs, education, and job opportunities in both Masese and Jinja
- As much as possible they create jobs within the community as opposed to bringing outsiders to do the job
- They have the lowest overhead and administration cost i have ever seen from a non-profit organisation/ministry. 98cents of every dollar goes to Uganda. Awesome
They are doing some truly world-changing work in Uganda! I encourage you to support them!
Justice + Economics. What is it?
Posted by: angielost on: December 1, 2011
Theres going to be a lot of discussion on this blog about something called economic justice. So I thought it was pertinent to talk a little about what justice actually is and what economic justice looks like.
Justice is not the same as charity
What i love about the word justice is that it takes things one step further than charity.
Charity looks at a poor person on the street and throws them some money
Justice sees that same poor person and takes steps to raise them out of poverty
Charity sees someone without clothes and provides them with an item of clothing
Justice sees that same naked person and provides them with a means to continue clothing themselves.
Charity sees someone without food and feeds them
Justice sees that same person and gives them a means to feed, and continue feeding themselves.
In essence Charity temporarily alleviates a persons current state of need. Whereas Justice works to change the person’s state for good. Charity allows others to provide for that person whilst Justice allows that person to develop the means to provide from themselves.
What justice looks like
Poverty exists in the world not because the people experiencing it want to remain in poverty but because they have no means to raise themselves out of that poverty.
Economic justice is one term that has been coined to define a model that helps permanently raise people out of poverty. It has a three pillar approach involving Participation (input), Distribution (output) and harmony. ANd when put into action it changes more than individuals it changes communities.
Participation
Take people who are living in abject poverty, provide them with practical job training, give them additional continual training (in literacy, basic accounting, computer skills etc) and allow them to produce something in order for a fair wage. Each person contributes products as they are able.
Distribution
The product is sold and each person who contributes gets there share of the profit each according to their contribution. Part of this profit is reinvested into their business (buying more stock), part is put into savings, and part is spent on everyday living.
Harmony
The principal of Harmony is in effect the principle of limitations. It is important that in order to continue serving a community an economic justice movement is limited from the natural human tendencies towards greed. This is done by providing checks and balances to prevent a monopolies. They are self-governed and it is essentially necessary that everyone in the initiative is given the same opportunity to acquire, participate and enjoy the fruits of the income producing labour. If this is maintained monopolization and hierarchical bullying (where a leader takes more than what they contribute solely because they are a “leader”) will not take hold!
ONe method to manage this is to have multiple small self-governing production teams within the project (eg multiple self-governing groups of 5 women producing the same thing, each responsible for their own in put or output)
Give Back
I like to add a principle of economic justice and that is the principle of giving back. You can tell that and economic justice project is actually working when the participants are raised out of poverty to the point where they can begin to themselves assist in both charity and in new initiatives to raise others out of poverty. This is when economic justice comes full circle. “We have been giving a oppertunity to better ourselves and thus we give other the opportunity to also better themselves”
What a beautiful model when it works correctly it changes individuals, families and can transform communities! Who wouldn’t want to be part of something so simple that can transform so much?
Remember being intentional with the way you spend can have a major effect on an economic justice business initiative. You too can play a part in transforming communities!
Upside Down Buisness
Posted by: angielost on: December 1, 2011
Business is all about making money right? To start a successful business you find the best people you can and pay them as little as you can in order to get good products and have an excellent profit margin. This is why business’ are taking there factories overseas, to asia, to mexico etc. It’s because they can pay very little money and still receive products that are of a sellable quality. But what are the effects of this business model?
In the privileged world we continue to pay premium prices for products that are made in factories where the pay is minimal and workers still live in abject poverty despite spending long hours working in factories. Where does all the money go? The answer is simple. Into the hands of the corporations. Our consumerism feeds the greed of the big business men and aids in keeping the poor in poverty.
But why can’t the business model change. Why can’t we use business, why can’t we use our consumerism to make a change. What if we made a decision to change things around? What if we found the least educated people, trained them and paid them the most amount of money, to produce goods that could be sold for a fair price in the international marketplace. What would the effect of this business model be?
It would be life changing, it would reduce poverty and it would transform lives, families, and communities.
I want to take some time now to highlight one such company that is doing that. Freeset Bags, started by the Hilton family from New Zealand is a business in Kolkotta which allows women to give up prostitution and instead have a job making bags. It provides literacy classes, childcare, and training for these women who previously had no other life options. Many of whom had been trafficked or sold into prostitution at an early age. For them this business model equals freedom and it is slowly changing their lives and raising them out of poverty.
Watch a short video on Freeset Bags:
Freeset Bags is one company that is using an upside down business model, allowing us as consumers to make a significant difference in the lives of others. Consider making a difference with the way you buy this christmas. Why not buy a freeset bag? Buy a bag change a life. Making a difference with the way you spend is that easy
Find a distributor for freeset bags near you: http://freesetglobal.com/contact/distributors.html
Or if you want to know more about the freeset process consider buying the amazing documentary Calcutta Hilton: http://www.calcuttahilton.com/DVD.htm
Here’s a short excerpt
Know any other upside business models? Share them with us by leaving a comment!
